The simple step of researching a topic can often make the entire process much easier.
When you are doing background research on your topic, you'll want to consult reference sources. These can be encyclopedias found in the library or online. You can use Wikipedia in this preliminary phase of research, just don't cite Wikipedia in an academic paper because you don't know the authority of who is writing the content, and material in Wikipedia can change from day to day.
When beginning your research it is helpful to begin by thinking about how you will proceed with your research.
What are going to be your keywords for searching? Are there alternative words that you might need to use?
One way to visualize your research is to create a concept map (or mind map). This might help you see the big picture of your research and where you may be able to go with your research.
While there are many ways to develop a research question, one method involves answering three simple questions:
Another way to frame it is through the phrase:
I am studying ______ to find out who/how/why ______ in order to understand who/how/why ______.
Thinking about Your Question
We have a well-formed question to guide our research:
“Does prolonged exposure to violent video game lead to aggressive behavior in teenagers?”
Now, what should we do with it?
To start, you can use it to create search queries for the various databases and resources you will be using during your research. It may be tempting just to type this question into a search box, but that won't yield the best results. You need to focus on the concepts at the heart of your question, and assess whether the results you receive contribute to answering the question you've designed.
Working backward from the question, our key terms are:
We will definitely want to identify articles that contain all of these key concepts, and a search query like "video games" AND "aggressive behavior" AND teenagers should get us some of those. However, we will want to once again think of related terms and concepts to substitute into our queries to make sure that we're locating related articles that may use different terms for the same concepts. Some of the terms from the concept map we created earlier will likely be helpful here.
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Now we are ready to construct numerous search queries. As we search articles and read abstracts, it is likely that we'll identify additional synonyms and related concepts to add to this list. It's best to keep an active list of terms like this in case you're having little luck with searching— each database is a little different, and subtle changes to the language you use can often bring you very different results.
As you learn more about your topic through searching and reading articles, you may find that you can refine or adjust your research question even further.
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